Delay is a victory but not for long, analyst says

Any remaining political support for former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak could “collapse” once a corruption trial related to the scandal-ridden state fund 1MDB gets underway — despite the ex-leader’s recent attempts to shore up his popularity on social media, an analyst said on Tuesday.

The delay could be seen as a “victory” for Najib, whose recent social media activity — which includes releasing a music video — is widely seen by observers as an attempt to engineer a political comeback, said James Chin, director of the Asia Institute Tasmania at the University of Tasmania. But those efforts may be futile because the trial — when it eventually starts — will remind Malaysians of the scale of 1MDB’s alleged money laundering scandal, Chin added.

No new date has been set for the trial, but Reuters reported that a Malaysian prosecutor said the delay could last one or two weeks.

“Very often, the followers on social media and the likes you get on social media [do] not necessarily mean that you can translate that into broad political support in the real world. And also, I suspect that once the trial gets going, once people find out the amount of money involved and also how the money was misused, I suspect the political support will collapse after that,” Chin told CNBC’s “Street Signs” on Tuesday.

Even then, a delay in the legal process and greater visibility on social media platforms could benefit Najib if it lasts long enough for the political climate in Malaysia to change, according to Oh Ei Sun, a senior fellow at the Singapore Institute of International Affairs.

“If the political tide in the country turns, let’s say, in a few years’ time, then he could well be back in power, for example, or his allies could be back in power and he could then be absolved of all these charges,” Oh told CNBC’s Sri Jegarajah on Tuesday. Oh was Najib’s political secretary in 2009 to 2011.

Najib was voted out of office in a historic election that ended the 60-year rule of Barisan Nasional, a coalition of political parties in power since Malaysia’s independence. The upset, experts said, can be largely attributed to Najib’s alleged involvement in the 1MDB scandal — in which billions of dollars were allegedly siphoned off the investment company set up to steer Malaysia’s economic development. Some of those funds allegedly ended up in Najib’s personal bank account.